Kiona Sept 28

Kiona hiking trail, road up, and landing zone.

I had never been to Kiona (next to Benton City in WA state) but was in the mood for trying a new site with all the north wind we've been having lately.

Kiona ridge looking east with the road access visible.

Kiona is an easy hike up (1 hour) or 2-wheel drive to the top (it's toplandable), and you can pretty much launch anywhere depending on wind strength and finding a sagebrush-free spot on the slopes.

Kiona ridge facing NW.

Wind was predicted to be on the stronger side, if not blown-out, but at the end of the day the wind dropped enough to launch safely.  There's about 6 km of straight NE ridge, and an extra ~2km of more N ridge next to the antennas.  Just pick a slope that faces into the wind!

Over-the-back is pretty flat and would make for interesting XC!

Once in the air you can see that over the back the terrain is basically flat...kinda like flying at Chelan, but without the canyon crossing!  I'm thinking that in a light north wind and on an unstable day it could be an interesting flatland XC site.